DailyDirt: Biological Curiosities

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Biology always seems like the messy and gooey branch of science. Biology contains a bunch of strange phenomena that seemingly exist just because they're possible. Here are just a few quirky biological discoveries.

Re:

You didn't read the article did you?

Quote:

A team of researchers at the University of Osaka created the animal in their "Evolved Mouse Project", in which they use genetically modified mice that are prone to miscopying DNA and thus to mutations.

"Mutations are the driving force of evolution. We have cross-bred the genetically modified mice for generations to see what would happen," lead researcher Arikuni Uchimura told AFP.

"We checked the newly born mice one by one... One day we found a mouse that was singing like a bird," he said, noting that the "singing mouse" was born by chance but that the trait will be passed on to future generations.

Its still a mouse...

All they are showing is an example of natural selection, not evolution. The mouse is still a mouse. Through natural selection, a CHARACTERISTIC of the mouse changed, but at its core, it is still a mouse. That is like pointing out how people closer to the equator have darker skin as opposed to those in more temperate climates. They are adapted to their environments, but it doesn't make any of them any less human. No REAL mutation can add any information (like changing a mouse into a newt). It has been shown time and time again that mutations of this sort are degenerate (and therefor would cause the organism in question to cease to exist). Evolution requires millions of years of coincidental POSITIVE mutations to occur in order to achieve complex organisms... right. At the end of the day, its still just a mouse with a different characteristic due to natural selection (or in this case humans making the selection which would actually be by design).

Creationists emphasize 'kinds' that adapt (but inherently still of that kind). For example: a poodle, a collie, and a german sheperd are all dogs which have different characteristics, but doesnt make them any less dogs. These different dogs all have a common ancestor, which also, not coincidentally, was a dog. Due to natural selection and the conditions of their environments, the different dogs adapted to survive.

For years, creationists have emphasized a “kinds” model of biology (and thereby established the field of baraminology). This model starts with the Bible’s description of God creating unique “kinds” of plants and animals (and man as distinct from any animal kind), then applies what we know about natural selection and various genetic processes to understand the biological diversity we observe today. Rather than all creatures descending from the same original organism—a “tree” model of life—all creatures descend from the progenitors of their kind—an “orchard” model. Thus, the whole range of canids, from domesticated dogs to wolves to jackals and beyond, constitutes the diversified members of the original “dog” kind. And the confusion over the taxonomic placement of the Egyptian jackal reminds us of this biological reality.